Techstars Boston Demo Day: VC Gets More Selective, Plus 3 Takeaways

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compliance and implementing security programs. “Most customers are starting from ground zero” when it comes to security, he adds.

3. Entrepreneurs still see opportunities for reinventing old industries. Three of the latest Techstars Boston companies focus on applying new technologies to some of the oldest sectors in the world: banking, insurance, and real estate. The one focused on real estate, OpenFrame, has developed a tiny, 360-degree camera that attaches to smartphones, enabling real estate agents to shoot photos and videos of their property listings and quickly share them online. The product is intended to help agents market properties, drive up listing prices, and bring more qualified buyers to the door, while giving prospective buyers more information to help in their decision, OpenFrame CEO Aymeric Vigneras writes in an e-mail to Xconomy.

“People expect everything to be instant, quick, fast, in a snap,” he writes. “We make it possible for a real estate agent to do videos in [a] few minutes with a phone, at a very affordable price.”

Cambridge, MA-based OpenFrame, which says it has raised $3.8 million from investors to date, isn’t the first Techstars Boston company trying to bring real estate into the 21st century. The accelerator previously backed real estate software maker Placester, which has raised $100 million in venture capital. Placester co-founder Fred Townes is one of OpenFrame’s advisors.

“These guys have been growing like crazy,” Townes says in a video touting OpenFrame. “I’ve seen a lot in my years at Placester, and it’s super difficult to make a solution for the real estate professional and help them be successful today.”